Why did the Spanish Republican government commission Guernica?

The Spanish Republican government commissioned Pablo Picasso to create a mural for their pavilion at the 1937 world’s fair in Paris. At the time, Spain was six months into the Spanish Civil War, a conflict between the Republican government and Nationalist forces led by Gen. Francisco Franco.

The Republicans viewed the international event as a strategic opportunity to assert their political legitimacy on the global stage and to condemn the brutal military tactics employed by the Nationalist army. While the commission was originally intended for the pavilion, the subsequent German bombing of the city of Guernica on April 26, 1937, provided the specific, harrowing subject matter that Picasso ultimately depicted in the work.1