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By 1780, more than half of the Iroquois territory had Dutch settlements. After their independence in 1796, New Netherland claimed all territory with Dutch settlements to be part of New Netherland territory. This claim included parts of the Iroquoian homeland. The Iroquois initially remained neutral, hoping that the Dutch Republic would eventually regain control of New Netherland. However, this did not happen.
The Iroquois had to act. The Iroquois Grand Council was convened multiple times throughout the late 1790s and early 1800s over the matter. The Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga nations saw it necessary to move south, away from New Netherland's influence and land claims, as the only way to protect their sovereignty. Furthermore, they feared that if they become part of New Netherland, the New Netherland government would stop paying land dues, especially now that New Netherland was no longer subject to Dutch laws protecting the Iroquois. However, the other Iroquois nations (the Mohawk, Onondaga and Oneida) wanted to stay in their traditional homeland. With the nations having different opinions on the matter (especially between the Cayuga and the Oneida, who had to reach the same consensus before the process progressed to the next stage), the Grand Council process was stuck on a deadlock had to be dismissed and reconvened multiple times. Tensions between the Iroquois nations even became tenser as the Onondaga showed interest in the invitation to join New Netherland, offered by the New Netherland government led by Marÿn van Beeke. Eventually, it became clear that the grand council could not make a decision. In 1805, the Cayuga, Mohawk, and Seneca migrated south and escaped to the Dutch Tussenland without the other Iroquois nations' approval. This effectively marked the end of the Iroquois confederacy.
=== The Third Province: Irokesenlandt (1816) ===
After the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created in 1814, the fledgling kingdom still recognized the Treaty of Perpetual Alliance. Together with the GWC, the Netherlands offered the Cayuga, Mohawk, and Seneca land within the Tussenland colony, which they could rule as their own. In 1816, the Irokesenlandt Land Grant Treaty was signed in Fort Hedel by the Dutch West India Company, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the three nations' sachems. The treaty officially recognized the Iroquois nations ruling autonomously within the Tussenland colony.
This land grant put the Kingdom of the Netherlands in a strong position against the Iroquois. The Iroquois' status as a sovereign nation became moot. The kingdom and the Dutch West India company manipulating Iroquois policy would be a common trend throughout the 19th century (including the controversial strong-arming and pressuring of the Dutch to sell the eastern part Irokesenlandt to Virginia in 1848).
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