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. |