Final answer:
The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by Puritan beliefs in the supernatural, societal tensions, the traumatizing effects of wars, and allegations by girls in Salem Village against social non-conformists. Influential ministers like Cotton Mather contributed to the hysteria, which led to over one hundred accusations and nineteen executions until it ended in 1693.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Salem Witch Trial hysteria of 1692 was a complex event influenced by a variety of factors. At the time, the Puritan belief system was entrenched in the idea of the supernatural, with the devil considered responsible for societal ills. As tensions increased with a new royal charter and social pressures, coupled with traumatic events such as Native wars, the bizarre behavior of afflicted girls in Salem Village (now Danvers) who claimed to have been bewitched following their experimentation with the occult, prompted accusations of witchcraft.
Individuals like the local minister's West Indian servant, Tituba, and social outliers such as Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were targetted first. The situation escalated as anything from non-conformity to resisting the accusations became evidence of witchcraft. The involvement of influential figures like Cotton Mather, who vehemently believed in the existence of witches, and Increase Mather, who later questioned the validity of spectral evidence, shaped the course of events. As accusations snowballed, over one hundred people were implicated, and nineteen were executed before the hysteria subsided in 1693 when the educated elite called for rationality.