Calpulli-- a "conical clan" based on real and fictive kinship with hereditary internal stratification and a chief known as a tlatoani (called cacique by the Spanish) elected from a group of candidates from a particular family. Each settled area was divided into four Ayllus that controlled distribution of land and labor reciprocity. Calpulli warriors fought together as unit.

Tlatoani=nobles of the royal house
Priestly class (not hereditary)
Pipiltin=knightly nobles (accessible to lower orders distinguished in battle)
Macehualtin=commoner
Mayeques=serfs, cultivators of conquered lands paying tribute to knights
Slaves

Ayllu-- a "conical clan" based on real and fictive kinship with hereditary internal stratification and strictly hereditary chief known as a kuraca. Each settled area was divided into four Ayllus that controlled distribution of land and labor reciprocity. Ayllu warriors fought together as unit

Panaqa=nobility of the royal house
Priestly class (not hereditary)
Sinchi=military chief /minor nobility (little or no upward mobility)
Puric=commoner
Mitmaqkuna=colonists sent to secure newly conquered lands and Incanize the populations
No slave class

Tenoch  1345 (founder of Tenochtitlan) 
Acamapichtli 1375-1416 
Chimalpopoca 1417-1426 (murdered in coup by militarist faction) 
Itzcoatl  1426-1440
Montezuma I 1440-1468
Axayacatl 1469-1481
Ahuitzotl 1486-1502
Montezuma II 1502-1520

Sinchi Roca  ??
Yahuar Huacac ??
Viracocha Inca c. 1400-1438
Pachakuti 1438-1471 (taken as throne name by Yupanqui after his coup)
Topa Inca (1471-1493)
Huanya Capac 1493-1525
Huascar 1525-1532
Atauhualpa 1532-1533

Polytheistic. The two main gods were Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird-on-the-Left) unique to the Aztec and requiring massive human sacrifice. He was elevated over Quetzalcoatl (Fathered Serpent) the traditional primary deity requiring little or no human sacrifice (authorities disagree). Montezuma II sacrificed 40,000 to celebrate his inauguration. Ritual cannibalism disposes of the corpses.

Polytheistic in transition to monotheism centered on worship of the sun Inti coexisting with ancestor worship centered on the veneration of mummies known as huacas. Human sacrifice was practiced on a limited basis by drugging an individual and leaving them top sacred mountains effectively creating a mummy for that place.

Imperial state originates in a coup and formation of Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tacuba that the Aztecs dominate. Election of the king taken from the tradition capulli councils and vested in a military council of four. Social classes are fixed. All society is organized for war to obtain prisoners for sacrifice. This=motor of imperial expansion. Peace is seen as unnatural and enemy polities--Enemies of the House--tolerated to provide opponents in the Flower Wars for the noble military orders (Knights of the Eagle, Jaguar etc.). Histories rewritten to justify new state.  Imperial organization is loose. Local lords continue to rule and war and human sacrifice serve as instruments of state terror that substitute for direct rule. Vassalage and subordination is acknowledged by payment of tribute collected by armies of merchants (Pochteca) who also serve as spies

Imperial state originates in a coup. 
Pachakuti ("He Who Remakes the World) reshapes the cult of hucas to create the Imperial Mummy Cult that become the motor of imperial expansion. Wealth and property of the Inca remain his in death, administered for him by his panaqa. This "split inheritance" forces each successive Sapa (unique or supreme) Inca to conquer new lands to provide the basis of his rule. War is seen as a means to an end--to bring peace, prosperity, and civilization. Rule is direct and highly centralized. Local autonomy is completely eliminated. Spys are employed to check on all aspects of daily life. Dwellings have no doors to facilitate spot inspections. Poor house-keepers are forced to eat dirt poor personal hygiene punished by forcing offender to drink bath water.  Inhabitants of each ayllu identifiable on sight by unique designs woven into mantles.

Center of empire was Lake Texcoco with 50 city-states around its shore facilitating canoe-borne trade. Aztecs presided over a highly developed tributary trade system--a moneyless market economy. Tenochtitlan was 5-square miles with up to 200,000 in population. Tens-of-thousands entered its markets each day using its canal system.  The city received yearly tribute of 7000 tons of maize, 4000 tons of each of five kinds of beans,  sage seed and small grains, 2,000,000 cotton cloaks, and other goods manufactured by tributary cities which encouraged specialization of production.  Lake world agriculture was based on the chinampas or floating gardens created as huge state-directed swamp reclamation projects.
The Pochteca merchants who served to connect the trade-war empire were not Aztecs but a distinct ethnic group probably descended from the Olmec merchant class   (integral outsiders) who were fictive relatives of the royal house and of the nobles on whose accounts they traded

 
The Inca economy was one of theocratic socialism not unlike that of Old Kingdom Egypt based on reciprocity at the state and ayllu level. There were no markets expect for cross roads trade permitted monthly. Taxes were exacted as labor (mita) owed the Inca by married couples (30 days yearly).  Mita might be spent build roads, serving as runners or working in central locations mass manufacturing pottery, textiles and other goods for redistribution. Purics labored on their own usufruct plots, plots to support hucas (mummies) and the Inca's plots the produce of which went to fill storehouses which comprised over 10% of the buildings of every settlement and city. Inventory control was kept by quipus (knotted cords) employing a decimal counting system. The Incas were the only civilization to have no writing system. The various unique stacked ecological zones in the Andes were exploited in a vertical archipelago system by colonists who retained connections with their original villages/cities. Access to the products of the various  zones were thus integrated throughout the empire.