Spain's motive to send Columbus to the Caribbean islands was purely to expand on it. He referred to it as the "West Indies" and the people there Indians. If he had complete freedom to explore the world, he probably would have explored other places, or places he already knew about. That would have just made him a traveler, not a person fit for world history. I think it would have just made him travel to where Asia would be, or a very specific location that he was looking for because those were the discovered places. California wouldn't have been founded, USA wouldn't have been founded, and all the people and what we know would be altered if it weren't for Columbus's expedition.