Short answers, pulled from the story.
Autocracy is a form of government where one person holds total control over civil liberties. The image from 1775 captures absolute power visually cemented in gold and ceremony.
The earliest forms of autocracy emerged during the Neolithic period as chiefdoms developed within tribal societies lacking centralized authority. By the 3rd millennium BCE, city-states like those in Mesopotamia were ruled by kings who held both political and religious power.
Totalitarian governments engage in direct control of citizens' lives while authoritarian regimes do not. Totalitarian states forbid political or cultural pluralism requiring citizens to devote themselves to a single ideological vision.
Autocratic governments are more likely to go to war than democratic ones since citizens are not part of the selectorate. Autocratic countries have experienced significantly more famines than democratic ones since 1850 according to recorded data.
Gordon Tullock created the first general theory defining autocracy independently in 1974 using applied public choice theory. Modern typology originated from Juan Linz's mid-20th century work dividing democracy authoritarianism and totalitarianism.