Ap Euro Dbq Witch Craze

During the Elizabethan Era, witches were considered evil burdens to society. It was thought that witches worshipped the devil and used their supernatural powers to commit crimes against the community. They were often held responsible for deaths, illnesses, and other mishaps that occurred within the community. Many citizens hated witches for these misfortunes, even though witches had no control over these accidents. Many times witches were severely punished for committing these crimes and they could even be sentenced to death.

Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society's perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a series of events that changed the lives of many Puritans forever. Myriads of innocent people were scapegoated, convicted and even executed of witchcraft. It is hard to believe that this absurdity really occurred, and many tried to locate the reasons that led to the evolution of this crisis. While some turned to economic patterns to explain the hysteria, the people’s belief in the Bible and eagerness to conform to slander contributed most to the progression of the Witch Trials.

There are many factors that have contributed to the rising of witchcraft frenzies that gripped Salem in 1692. Even though there is an abundance, there are quite a few that are extremely important. These factors include, not only, economics, superstition, religion, politics, and gender.

The large-scale witch-hunts that occurred from 1638 to 1651 gathered momentum via major happenings in the political, societal, and religious domains developing at the time. Individuals who had either political, religious or economic power in society, also known as elites, together had absolute control over the pursuit and prosecution of individuals who partook in witchcraft. The clergy played a crucial role in the witchcraft prosecutions and were slower than the state and localities to desert their beliefs in the reality of witches as the prosecution of witchcraft was, in their eyes, an effective tool to eradicate social deviance. Though local authorities and the Parliament did contribute to the witch-hunts significantly, without the kirk of Scotland declaring and encouraging this sanction on witchcraft, both other parties would not have taken the actions they ultimately did. This essay will provide a brief description of events that took place from 1638 to 1651 and then utilize evidence from a multitude of sources to argue that the religious elites were the most influential of these forces during the witchcraft prosecutions that occurred in the 1640s.

Witches have been feared by man since the 14th century in Europe when they believed women were given evil powers for loyalty to the devil. Although some others believed it was the result of consuming the fungus “Ergot” which was found in rye, wheat and other cereals. According to Jess Blumberg multiple people were caught using witchcraft as he mentions in her post “More than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed”. Later in colonial times there was a widespread of witchcraft throughout the new pioneer villages. People believe that it became worse from all the anxiety from the fear of death from disease, savages, smallpox and the after war effects of the British war with France. All this anxiety was driving the Puritans

The last of the witches that were accused during the trials were finally released in September of 1693 in Salem. Over the year that the trials tools place, more than one hundred people were imprisoned and twenty-four individuals died. The events of the trials taught society a lesson, and there were measures taken to assure that these events would not be repeated. The witch trials brought about many effects for both the future and the present times of the event. While the trials themselves may not be affecting the way society is today, they certainly molded the way that political leaders looked at the influence of outside forces in government. During the trials, there was a huge issue with a local community committing entirely to one homogenous issue that was brought on by accusations of young women in a town. It is obvious that the town was entirely in fear as the trials unraveled, and as more people were falsely charged with witchcraft it added to the hysteria. People were genuinely afraid, and so because of this, there were not many vocal moments by individuals to oppose what was going on. Many members of the community considered the trials to be a corrupt act as well, especially after many

Most of the people that were tried were over the age of 40 and were accused by people between the ages of 16 and 18, which tells a lot. There a three main reason why the hysteria went crazy. There were many reasons why the witch trials took place and how they were able to keep spreading, But there are three that really helped in spread. Fear,Mass Religion, and Jealousy were major roles in the witch trials The first reason the salem witch trials were able to spread like a wildfire was due to the penalty of being a witch.

Witch hunting was the persecution and possible execution of individuals considered to be ‘witches’ loyal to the devil. It was an all too common occurrence from 1603-1712 all over Europe. However in order to understand why this happened the context must be taken into account. It was a time of change, the Renaissance - the rebirth of culture, ideas and attitudes to living. The Reformation had also only been implemented in England in the last 80 years back from 1603, when it had previously been catholic for centuries. The English civil war from 1642 to 1651 is argued to have played a part in the intensification of the witch hunts in England due to the peak in executions whilst it was on going. Some historians have taken the view that in time of crisis certain groups can be victimised like in wars, famine, disease outbreaks and changes in society structure.

The reason behind the historical witch hunts begin with materialism and abhorrence. Society in Salem appears quiet and dull; however, when rumors spread of witches, society accuses the social outcasts at first. “Research has long passed the old notion that authorities, especially the Church, fell in with the people’s supposed eagerness for scapegoats to blame for poor harvests, disease, or similar catastrophes and used intensive prosecution to further their own authoritarian ends” (Maxwell-Stuart 73). Then, the people of Salem throw accusations at the people that they loath or covet their neighbor’s land. This brought a new change in their society: they show a piece of individuality, even if townspeople’s individuality displays as spreading rumors or lying about their neighbors.

Most historians agree that the witch craze began in the 15th century, during the early modern period. However, many factors that contributed to the witch craze had been brewing for several centuries prior, in as early as the 12th century we see the persecution of heresy by the Medieval Inquisition, which is basically a large-scale model of religious groups suppressing and killing anyone who does not agree with them, or speaks out against them. This similar type of rational is seen happening in Colonial America: men, women, and children who were educated, and spoke out against the social norms were labeled as witches and targets of hate crimes.

The factors include political, social, intellectual, and institutional. The political factors, have contributed to the decline of the accusation witchcraft. For example, Mathew Hopkins, who named himself as the Finder of witchcraft, had illegally caused the death of many women, and according to him he is using technique such as confession to interrogate witches. The decline of witch-hunts in England can be attributed partially to this social improvement. Poor women are no longer considered as witches because of their social class. This creates the idea of tolerance because people starting accepting old women. The judiciary is another important element to consider, because of the judiciary, people started to accept that the idea of the Devil, the diabolism and witch-hunts is a religious matter rather than a civil matter, and the punishment of witches decreased. Institutional policy improved in the judicial system which also create a decrease in prosecution of

The witch-hunt that blazed a trail across Europe (and indeed the world) over the 15th to 18th centuries stripped women of much of the power they had historically held. Not 100% of all accused Witches were female but 75% to 90% of accused witches in Europe were in fact women (Levack, 1987, p.124).

The Witch Trials tore apart the town of Salem and many parts of Europe due to a from the impurities of their religion, the competing economic struggles, and the social discrepancies of the conflicting sides of town; thus causing an outbreak in witch hunting. The great witch hunts took place at the times of the early centuries of Europe. There are frightening parts in history between the hunt for witches in the past and the hunt for terrorists today. People can compare the two because they are both act's of violence towards society and human beings. The witch has been replaced by the terrorist with equal dangers to the human society, for the most realistic ambitions of a witch hunt is alike and pertaining and accused of the act of guilty. They both can relate to each other to the automatic acceptance of guilty from society. People see them as criminals and automatically assume the worse. Witch hunting, started with automatic acccusations. It was almost a job for people to discover and accuse "witches." It had become known as Europe’s “witch craze.” It was at its heighest point between about 1580 and 1650. Most witchcraft trials were local affairs involving only a few local victims, but from time to time the accusations became unlike antyhing else, they became massive one after another. These were the great witch hunts known to man. Witches were deemed serious enough and dangerous enough between 1580 and 1650 in Europe, between fifty thousand and eighty thousand human beings

Women in these situations were made even more vulnerable by the changes occurring during the reformation which removed the church’s support for women, who often spoke on behalf of accused women because women weren’t allowed to themselves. The susceptibility of people to be accused of witchcraft also depended on their location, such as unorganized, uneducated and weakly governed areas where religious instability (Protestant vs Catholic) was present. Another factor that worsened the witch hunts was the invention of the printing press which printed images of witches doing otherworldly things, adding to the paranoia and fear of witchs. If a person was accused of being a witch or evidence was found to create suspicion, the accused could be subject to a variety of gruesome tortures such as the torturing of sexual organs, and if found guilty of these charges (which they often were) they would often be burned or hanged. Nearing the end of the witch hunts when things began to get back under control, a new judicial system was introduced to Europe that commanded stricter rules for witchcraft prosecutions and