Witchcraft, weather and economic growth in renaissance Europe

Between the 13th and 19th centuries, as many as one million individuals in Europe were executed for the crime of witchcraft. The majority of the trials and executions took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. During this period the speed and volume of executions were astonishing: in one German town as many as 400 people were killed in a single day (Midelfort, 1972). The trials were ubiquitous: conducted by both ecclesiastical and secular courts; by both Catholics and Protestants. The victims were primarily women, primarily poor and disproportionately widows. The persecutions took place throughout Europe, starting and ending earlier in southwest Europe than in the northern and eastern areas, and spread even across the Atlantic to Salem, Massachusetts. Although witchcraft trials in Europe and America largely ended by the late 18th century, witchcraft accusations and killings still take place in many countries today, particularly in the developing world. For example, witchcraft is often blamed for AIDS deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ashforth, 2001) and Miguel (2003) shows that negative economic shocks in Tanzania are associated with increases in witch-killing there. Belief in the witch, and fear of her, is enduring. While much work has been done on the motivations behind the European trials, th