What were the motives of the Spanish conquistadors?

The conquistadors had many motives, and of course
different people surely had different motives.  Overall, though, the typical
conquistador was most likely driven by a desire to get wealth and
power.

Many of the Spanish conquistadors were men who did
not have a great deal of status back at home.  They came to the New World in hopes of
making their fortunes.  They hoped, for example, that they might be given encomiendas,
which were estates that they could run using the natives as essentially their slave
labor.  By coming to the New World, men like Hernan Cortes hoped to become wealthy and
important in the new colonies that they hoped to take.