Map of Jämtland, Ångermanland and Medelpad, 1771

This is an old map of Jämtland, Ångermanland and Medelpad, including Åsele Lapland. The map was published in 1771 with royal permission, possibly King Gustav III when he came to the throne in February 1771. The publisher was the County Governor Per Abraham Örnsköld and the map was produced by Joh. Törnsten in 1771 and engraved by C. Bergqvist and Fr. Akrel.

Jämtland, Medelpad (as part of greater Hälsingland) and Ångermanland were once independent Germanic kingdoms. Jämtland in particular has a long and richly documented history of independence and self-government. Jämtland's independent everything Jamtamot at Bynäset on Frösön is documented during the Middle Ages but undoubtedly older, and may have been founded as early as the last half of the 10th century, shortly after the world's oldest known parliament, Iceland's Everything, was founded in 930.

It was only in 1699, after many bloody wars, that the central power in Stockholm considered the peasants "Swedish" and granted them citizenship. The people of Jämtland were thus the last in modern-day Sweden to be granted Swedish citizenship. On the orders of Gustav III, 15 years later Östersund became Jämtland's first (and so far only) town in 1786, in part to stifle the ancient, free prefunding which did not provide sufficient tax revenue to the Swedish state. It was not until a hundred years later that industrialisation got under way in the region, with the establishment of the Sundsvall-Östersund-Storlien-Trondheim interurban railway, and the growth of forestry industries and eventually tourism in the mountain regions as well.