WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD ANALOGY TO USE FOR "THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICAN TERRITORY AMONG EUROPEAN POWERS WAS LIKE ...AND WE ALSO HAVE TO DRAW WHAT WE...

A good analogy for the Scramble for Africa has to have at least two things going on:

1. The people or whatever doing the scrambling have to want whatever they're scrambling for for its own sake.  By that I mean that it actually has to be useful to them in some tangible way.  European countries wanted the resources and markets of the African countries.  So the shark analogy is okay there.


2. But they also have to want it for their own pride because that's part of what was going on.  European countries wanted colonies partly just because they wanted to keep up with everyone else.  So the shark analogy breaks down there.

So what could it be...  high school students and cars?  They're useful but they're also totally a status symbol?  Students and boyfriends/girlfriends -- you want one for its own sake but also so you don't look like a loser?  Maybe one of those would work.  What do you think?