I think that the initial motivation was glory. Each section of Europe wanted its own claim to the "New World" as soon as Columbus stumbled upon it. But I believe that gold is what caused European countries to keep on exploring and adventuring to it. They wanted the riches that Spain had found there and were willing to put all their resources into finding that gold for themselves.
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But wasn't Colombus's original goal to find new trade routes to the East Indies?
I'm with Sarah here. Originally, Spain merely wanted to find a shortcut to the remote Asian markets so (like Portugal in India) they could ship valuable goods directly to Europe (or at least trans-America). Later, much of the motivation were religious (gotta get them Indians to see the light) and economically oriented, in mines, etc. The conquistadors were after some glory, but that wasn't all of the motivation.
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