It was the year of the great gold rush my dude goodluck
Answer:
Because they were not ready for the war
The reason why some nations were more prosperous and were faster to acheive economic prosperity was due to multiple reasons. Some have had multiple and violent military coups which obviously played a big role in their violent transitions. Other experienced violent civil wars because different cultures had to live together. These two things both played a very important devastating role in the violent transitions.
What could have been done would have been that they would redraw the borders.