When a Nation takes possession of a distant country and establishes a colony there, that territory, though separated from the mother country, forms naturally a part of the State, as much so as its older possessions. Hence, whenever the public laws or treaties make no distinction between them, all regulations affecting the mother country should be extended equally to the colonies.
Law of Nations or the Principle of Natural Law, E. de Vattle, book 1, §210, page 86, (1758).
According to the above definition the Kingdom of Hawai`i, a.k.a. Hawaiian Kingdom, or Government of the Hawaiian Islands was never colonized nor can the term de-colonization be used today in the defacto State of Hawai`i.