Changes

*1: a searching out for [[persecution]] of persons accused of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft witchcraft]

*1: a searching out for [[persecution]] of persons accused of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft witchcraft]

*2: the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (as [[political]] opponents) with unpopular views  

*2: the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (as [[political]] opponents) with unpopular views  

==Description==

==Description==

A '''witch-hunt''' is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving [[moral]] [[panic]], mass hysteria and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching lynching], but in historical instances also legally [[sanctioned]] and involving official witchcraft [[trials]]. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Modern_period classical period of witchhunts] in Europe and North America falls into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_period Early Modern period] or about 1480 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation Reformation] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War Thirty Years' War], resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions.

A '''witch-hunt''' is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving [[moral]] [[panic]], mass hysteria and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching lynching], but in historical instances also legally [[sanctioned]] and involving official witchcraft [[trials]]. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Modern_period classical period of witchhunts] in Europe and North America falls into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_period Early Modern period] or about 1480 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation Reformation] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War Thirty Years' War], resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions.