Technology was the least of their problems. Technology alone is never much of an advantage unless there is some huge disparity in it (eg., 'natives' fighting artillery and machineguns with spears or something along those lines). Far ahead of this in the list of problems was leadership, training, intrinisic social and moral values of the manpower and the society from which they were drawn, doctrine, and a whole litinany of similar and usually largely ignored and largely invisible factors that have far more impact on "fighting capacity."
Too often in history it is just simpler to blame technology or the lack thereof as the problem. After all, technology is tangible and generally measurable. It is one more case of taking the easy "management" route rather than the far more immersive and difficult to attain "leadership" one.