Podcast Summary: Dan Snow's History Hit

Episode: What Caused Europe's Witch Hysteria?
Date: October 29, 2025
Host: Dan Snow
Guest: Duncan Weldon, Economic Historian

Main Theme

The episode explores the causes behind Europe's witch hysteria during the 16th and 17th centuries. Rather than recounting specific trials, Dan Snow and guest Duncan Weldon delve into the interplay of social, economic, climatic, and cultural factors that led to the outbreak and intensity of witch hunts, focusing especially on the roles of misogyny, religious conflict, and changing societal structures.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction: The Witch Craze and Its Victims

• Dan Snow sets the scene, describing the hysteria that saw tens of thousands, mostly women, accused and executed as witches ([01:46]):

  "Tens of thousands of them, mostly women. They were accused, tortured, hanged, drowned and burned."

• Historical witch hunts targeted “the women who communities had once relied on to heal… suddenly found themselves the targets of malicious village gossips or witch hunters…”

Key Historical Figures: Heinrich Kramer and the Malleus Maleficarum

• Heinrich Kramer emerges as a pivotal figure, instrumental in redirecting the Inquisition towards witchcraft, especially after the 1480s ([05:27]–[08:25]).
• Kramer's infamous book, the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches", c.1487), becomes a practical manual for witch-hunters and is described as possibly "the most dangerous book of the 16th century" ([01:46]).
• Kramer's obsession with witchcraft, particularly targeting women, is discussed, alongside the use of torture to produce confessions ([12:10]):

  "The best way to convict a witch is to use torture to get a confession. And once you've got the confession, you can proceed straight to the execution." — Duncan Weldon ([12:10])

• The peculiar contents of Malleus Maleficarum are highlighted with a memorable, grotesque anecdote:

  "Did you know, for example, Dan, that witches will often collect many penises of men they've killed? They will keep them in a small box. They will at night bring them to life and feed them oats." — Duncan Weldon ([11:59])
  Dan replies in disbelief: "Really?" — Dan Snow ([11:59])

The Printing Revolution: Viral Ideas

• The Malleus Maleficarum "goes viral" thanks to the recent invention of the printing press, making Kramer's ideas far more influential than they otherwise might have been ([13:42]):

  "This is the moment in history where those ideas bump into the most sophisticated method of propagating information to that point in recorded history." — Dan Snow ([13:42])

• Books on witch-hunting become some of the most widely printed texts in Europe due to publishers' demand for bestsellers in the new print economy ([12:31]).

Structural and Economic Factors: The Little Ice Age

• Duncan Weldon introduces the concept of the Little Ice Age (roughly 15th–17th centuries), where colder, more volatile climates led to failed crops, economic hardship, and delayed marriages ([17:05]):

  "Europe at this time... is undergoing what some historians call the Little Ice Age. The temperature has dropped..." ([17:05])

• As people delayed marriage, the population of older, unmarried women increased, placing social and economic stress on communities and making these women especially vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft ([17:05]–[20:30]):

  “The share of unmarried women in the European population increases from around 10% to about 20% in this period… In some areas of Europe it goes as high as 30%.” — Duncan Weldon ([17:05]) "Unmarried women tend to be seen as a burden on their community, especially when they're getting older." — Duncan Weldon ([19:01])

• Weldon aptly ties in recent research from modern Tanzania, illustrating how climate disruption can drive contemporary 'witch killings' ([19:44]).

Gender and Misogyny

• While witch-hunting in theory could ensnare anyone, nearly all accused and executed were women, usually older and unmarried ([08:08]):

  "In theory, anyone can be a witch. In reality, almost everyone accused of witchcraft is a woman, more than 90%. Kramer… thinks it's all women." — Duncan Weldon ([08:08])

• Cultural fears about women "not fulfilling their prescribed social roles" intensify the hysteria ([20:30]).

Religious Conflict and Competition

• Religious fragmentation after the Protestant Reformation ramped up witch trials in border areas where Catholic and Protestant churches directly competed ([22:55]):

  "There's a format here. There's a time of contested ideas… areas like Germany, areas like Switzerland... that's where we see lots of witch trials." — Dan Snow ([22:40])

• Weldon asserts that churches, rivaling for the loyalty of populations, used witch trials as a form of “advertising” ([25:22]):

  "Witch trials are almost a form of advertising for these competing denominations." — Duncan Weldon ([25:22])

• Striking differences in execution rates:
  • Italy: 5 per million
  • Germany: 574 per million
  • Switzerland: 5,691 per million ([22:55]–[24:09])
• Areas consistently Catholic (e.g., Italy, Spain) had far fewer witch trials versus “faultline” areas.

The End of the Witch Hunts

• Following the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and a reduction in religious competition, witch trials declined ([28:17]):

  "After the Treaty of Westphalia 1648, there is this general acceptance that, all right, these bits of Europe are now Protestant, these bits of Europe are now Catholic... you do start to see a tailing off in witch trials." — Duncan Weldon ([28:17])

• Salem and the English Witchfinder General are noted as late echoes ([29:50]).

Modern Parallels & Lessons

• Dan Snow draws comparisons with 21st-century phenomena: economic stress, rapid information spread (now via the Internet and social media), and rising gender-based anxieties ([30:26]):

  "Young men are now less likely to think women ought to be in charge... there's been a publishing revolution, there's been economic headwinds..."

• Duncan Weldon sees strong analogies, warning that troubled economies combined with new ways to spread radical ideas create fertile ground for scapegoating and panic ([30:26]–[31:50]):

  "These sort of potentially dangerous messages... are always more likely when you have the confluence of new technologies... and when you have a generally troubled economic backdrop bringing social dislocation." — Duncan Weldon ([31:50])

• When asked if propaganda must simply "wait out" economic cycles, Weldon is cautiously pessimistic ([32:09]):

  "...you do have to rather sadly wait for the structural landscape to change. I mean, the witch trials ended. It took one of the bloodiest wars Europe's ever seen... hopefully we don't need a shock on that scale..." — Duncan Weldon ([32:09])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the media environment:

  "In early modern Europe, there's a really big market for slightly strange books about penises eating oats. Who knew?" — Duncan Weldon ([12:31])

• On the gendering of witchcraft:

  "For him [Kramer], it's usually women." — Duncan Weldon ([08:08])

• On economic underpinnings:

  "When people are poorer, the age of marriage tends to get delayed... What this all means... is the share of unmarried women in the European population increases..." — Duncan Weldon ([17:05])

• On religious competition:

  "Witch trials are almost a form of advertising for these competing denominations." — Duncan Weldon ([25:22])

• On modern echoes:

  "We've had generally a troubled economic situation since 2007–2008... We have an information revolution in which influencers... can go viral ... These are both the kind of things we saw... at the start of the European witch mania." — Duncan Weldon ([30:26])

Important Timestamps

• [01:46] — Dan Snow’s introduction, the setting of witch-hunting in Europe
• [05:25]–[06:51] — Who is Heinrich Kramer?
• [11:16]–[12:10] — The contents and impact of the Malleus Maleficarum
• [13:42]–[14:59] — The spread of witch-hunting ideas due to the printing press
• [17:05]–[18:58] — The Little Ice Age and demographic shifts
• [22:40]–[25:22] — Regional and denominational distribution of witch trials
• [28:17]–[29:50] — Why and how the trials declined after the Thirty Years’ War
• [30:26]–[32:09] — Modern comparisons and cautionary lessons

Conclusion & Takeaways

This episode provides a multi-layered analysis of Europe's witch hysteria, intertwining landmark historical personalities, technological revolutions (printing press), economic and climatic shifts (the Little Ice Age), religious competition, and deeply embedded misogyny. Weldon's economic historiography challenges the listener to see witch hunts not simply as mass delusion, but as an outcome of confluences between environment, technology, and institutional interests—a perspective with clear resonances in today's rapidly changing world.

Recommended Reading:

• Duncan Weldon's book: Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to Ukraine.