“A dictatorship dependent on coercion” How far do you agree with this description of the regime established by Napoleon in 1804?

Coercion is defined as the ability to “persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force and threats.” However, the opposite of ‘coercion’ is considered to be ‘persuasion’, therefore in order to determine the extent to which “a dictatorship dependent on coercion” is an accurate description of the regime established by Napoleon in 1804, the extent to which he used force to push people towards accepting his control must first be established, and his actions whilst establishing his regime must be closely analyzed.

When Napoleon established his regime in 1804, he had many opponents, the majority of whom were left-wing extremists, who inherited the ideas of the Jacobins. Right-wing royalists and émigrés, who desired a return to the Bourbon monarchy, also opposed him. Moderate republicans and liberals opposed the creation of a Napoleonic dictatorship. Napoleon dealt with left-wing republicans by deporting or arresting them. This shows how coercion was key to his rule, and he also used informers to infiltrate their clubs and societies. Napoleon was intelligent and he knew that there was a fine line between persuasion and coercion; he could act coercively towards certain groups of people whilst setting up his regime and pass it off as persuasion. An example of this was when Napoleon made some minor concessions to the royalists, which shows that coercion was not always fully necessary, and at times persuasion was a better choice of action; Napoleon offered amnesties, allowed religious concessions (for example Christian worship on Sundays), and promised an end to laws attacking the émigrés. Despite this obvious act of bribery and persuasion towards the royalists in order to gain their support, at times he also acted with severe