Read the case/source given and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct option.

When the Second World War ended, large parts of the world were still under European colonial rule. Over the next two decades, most colonies in Asia and Africa emerged as free independent nations. They were, however, overburdened by poverty and a lack of resources, and their economies and societies were handicapped by long periods of colonial rule. The IMF and the World Bank were designed to meet the financial needs of industrial countries. They were not equipped to cope with the challenge of poverty and lack of development in the former colonies. But as Europe and Japan rapidly rebuilt their economies, they grew less dependent on the IMF and the World Bank. Thus, from the late 1950s, the Bretton Woods institutions began to shift their attention more towards developing countries. As colonies, many of the less developed regions of the world had been part of Western empires. Now, ironically, as newly independent countries faced urgent pressures to lift their populations out of poverty, they came under the guidance of international agencies dominated by the former colonial powers. Even after many years of decolonisation, the former colonial powers still controlled vital resources such as minerals and land in many of their former colonies. Large corporations of other powerful countries, for example, the US, also often managed to secure rights to exploit developing countries’ natural resources very cheaply.

Why did the Bretton Woods institutions shift their focus from industrial countries to colonies?