The Roaring Twenties, the decade that followed World War I and led to the Crash,[4] was a time of wealth and excess. Building on post-war optimism, rural Americans emigrated to the cities in vast numbers throughout the decade with the hopes of finding a more prosperous life in the ever growing expansion of America's industrial sector.[5] While the American cities prospered, the vast emigration from rural areas and continued neglect of the US agriculture industry created widespread financial despair among American farmers throughout the decade[5] and would later be blamed as one of the key factors that led to the 1929 stock market crash.