The Salem witch trials can actually be seen as one of the last gasps of the witchcraft panic that gripped Europe and its colonies starting in the 15th century. Indeed, in 1735 the Witchcraft Act in England banned not witchcraft but pretending to be a witch for profit.

Of course, no case is going to be exactly like Salem in terms of town-village relations, family politics, and--not least--the swiftness and persistence of public outcry against the trials, both in and well beyond Salem. But if you'll allow for some flexibility--yes, early modern Europe provides far more than its share of hysteria over a belief in the presence of witches that flared up and consumed a town.

The "witch trial era" should not be taken to imply consistence persecution of people as alleged witches (hereinafter: just "witches," although it must be noted that there was no such thing as actual witches or witchcraft). Instead, accusations tended to follow a couple of patterns (with plenty of exceptions). On one hand, there could be isolated accusations of one person, or of a group of people loosely connected. William Bradford Smith uncovered cases in Franconia (Germany) where a group of women connected somehow to a single man ended up accused, for example.

On the other, an entire town could descend into chaos as accusations and executions flew every...witch...way. These situations were often sparked by the arrival of an inquisitor/witch hunter, usually a lawyer, in a town. Torturing a suspected witch would yield the names of other witches, whose torture would lead to other witches, and on down the line until panic burned itself out/the wrong person was accused and local authorities shut things down.

One of the most infamous cases of this is Bamberg in 1628-1631, in which even the town's mayor was accused, tortured, and burned. But in addition to being so important an official as the mayor, Johannes Junius managed to smuggle out of prison, before his execution, a letter recounting his experiences under torture.

Junius revealed to his daughter how the inquisitors got the names of witches. Once he was so desperate from the torture that he would say anything, they basically had him mentally go from house to house, street to street, and told him the number of people on that street who were witches that he would have to name.

Bamberg is just one case among far, far too many--scholars estimate that around 50,000 people, 85% of them women, were burned, drowned, or hanged as witches from the fifteenth into the eighteenth century. So while the specifics of the Salem witch trials were unique, the general atmosphere and horror were definitely not.

I recently gave an intriguing answer as to how the Swedish witch trials broke out.

Hope you’ll find it useful!