one sunny morning in 1937, the small vinage of Guernica in northern Spain was crowded with people enjoying market day. Suddenly, something trouble happened. German military planes appeared overhead, dropping bombs on the village below. Many people and animals were instantly injured or killed. The democratically elected government of Spain was fighting in a civil war against a military leader named Francisco Franco. It was Franco who had asked Germany to bomb Guernica. At the time, Pablo Picasso, a well-known artist from Spain, was living in Paris. A few days after the attack, Picasso saw the newspapers. On the front pages were large black-and-white photographs of the death and destruction in Guernica. The suffering, these people from his country affected Picasso deeply. Picasso became a political activist for Spain during the Spanish Civil War decided to create a painting about the bombing of Guernica to exhibit at the world in Paris that year.