Demetrios was well disposed toward the Ottomans, while Thomas sought help from the pope and other Western rulers against both his brother and the Turks.
Western rulers were scared of the Soviet Union.
These monarchs were in some sense district chiefs and vassals of the Western rulers of Maui.
The Emperor's combined economic and religious motives for this act have many similarities to those of Western rulers taking a similar step towards Catholic or Orthodox Monasteries.
In Rome, Thomas and his family received some monetary support from the Pope and other Western rulers as Byzantine emperor in exile, until 1503.
Western European rulers determined to find new trade routes of their own.
"You must not measure Cambodia with a Western ruler," he said.
He also asked the papacy and the Western European rulers for help.
Roger II of Sicily issued such coins, becoming the only Western ruler at that time to mint gold coins.
Essentially it is what the Western imperial rulers of their own lands always said: East is East, you know.