Fallout 3

[DarkPaladin]

As I understand the storyline (going back to the original Fallout game)

 

The Brotherhood of Steel came about after a US military command moved to West-Tek's research facility and found out about the scientists experimenting with FEV. They were horrified, killed the scientists and then deserted the military. The bombs dropped soon after they did this though so no-one ever court marshalled them, and once everything settled they moved to... Broken Hill was it? Where they founded the BoS base found in Fallout 1, California

 

The Enclave therefore, would be the actual remnants of the US Government who "didn't" desert, but they both were originally US government troops

 

They are very similar to each other, i.e power armour, hi-tech etc, but the time spent apart shows how the Enclave, who were not deserters, had access to much more tech than the Bos, hense why they're somewhat better equipped

[Riot Inducer]

Personally, giving the Enclave's starting location, I'd be more inclined to classify them as remnants of various state governments (California most prominently, obviously) than remnants of the Federal government. That said, they'd have no legitimate claim to Federal power, making them revolutionaries at best, terrorists at worst. Same for the Brotherhood really, who originated from a group of military officers. The Brotherhood though doesn't seem to have any designs on seizing power.

 

That would make a fair bit of sense, however I'm more inclined to believe the Enclave is the remnants of some kind of gov. shadow organization of some sort, their policies and doctrines fit with the route the U.S. gov was going before the war; victory at any cost with no concern for the well-being of their citizens. It would also explain how the enclave is equipped with "cutting edge" technology, things that were only experimental at the time of the war are standard issue in the Enclave. I don't really think state level government would have access to the kind of experimental tech and facilities the Enclave use.

 

As for why the Enclave hasn't taken over the Capital Wasteland by the time of F3, I think the Enclave is simply lazy, they didn't want to get caught up in the exhausting campaign Lyon's BoS had forced themselves into against the Super Mutants and they didn't want to spend their own resources to "fix" the wasteland, so they sat by and watched with their eyebots until someone got close to finding a "solution" then they dropped in to take the credit (if you hear some of the stuff on the enclave station

after they take over Project Purity, they claim that "Enclave scientists were hard at work for years making Project Purity work"

) As long as they are seen as the ones who did everything to "save the wasteland" the people there-in would be theirs, and those who saw through the propaganda would have little choice but to accept the Enclave's new control of the situation.

 

In short the Enclave in F3 was playing the situation for a long while, letting others make advancements while expending their own strength meanwhile the Enclave was building up theirs waiting for the perfect moment to come in and take over forcibly with little resistance as their enemies (namely the BoS) had expended their strength doing everything the Enclave now took credit for.

[GETbacon]

according to a dictation "an enclave is a part of the government designed to take over the position of government if nuclear warfare wipes out the previous government."

 

and since the original government was corrupt it probably leaked over onto the enclave so instead of rebuild society as it was they decided to make it to there own twisted vision

 

and the brotherhood is just a more noble enclave mainly due to elder Lyons wanting to help the people of the wastes instead of hording technology. So the outcasts which seek to

 

continue there mission are really just the enclave in less advanced armor which amounts to the game saying "All government & big corporations are evil".