Which statement about the history of France is accurate? The rulers who followed Hugh Capet built the kingdom into an empire that was about as big as modern France. Charlemagne was the Roman emperor who conquered France and went on to establish France as the center of a huge empire. When the monarchy ended in 1789, it was replaced by a democratic form of government that remains in place to this day. France got its name from its native people who adopted the Romans' Latin language and Christian religion.