Hawai’i became a state in 1959, despite the fact that as an island subjected to Western colonization, it was eligible for independence under international law. In 1946, Hawai’i was deemed a non-self-governing territory and placed on the UN List of Non-Self-Governing Territories, but it was unilaterally removed from that list in 1959 when the US government reported to the UN that Hawai’i had achieved self-government. The same applied to Alaska.
