About 60,000 people were executed for witchcraft in Europe in the early modern period, in the late 1400's up till the late 1700's, mostly women. Because women were poor and unable to afford legal counsel, and politically vulnerable. And sadly because they tended to go along with whatever men in authority said to them. Like for example, Are you a witch? The witch-hunts were especially severe in places like Germany, Italy and France. But also Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland. Modern concepts of witchcraft, and ironically modern satanism, comes from the things the witch hunters accused these women of. Defiling sacred religious items, selling their souls to the Devil and being naked during their rituals. Things like broomsticks probably were associated with witches at the time because they were old pagan symbols, and because they are associated with hearth and home, and women. A lot of ideas of witchcraft also probably came from things like ergot poisoning and the hallucinations people got from it. Ergot poisoning causes violent muscle spasms, vomiting, delusions, hallucinations, crawling sensations on the skin and vivid dreams. All of these things were usually reported by people back then who said they were being attacked by witches. Also, like Ian Robertson once said, the uneducated people of Europe might have believed in witches. But the authorities and people in power were just using it as an excuse to persecute groups they didn't like and distract the public's attention from the real problems in their society. Which were often caused by them, the authories and people in power.
