What if the monarchs of Castile & Aragon had agreed to fund Cristoforo Colombo's planned expedition to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in order to reach the Orient, rather than rejecting it as a fool's errand? Would Colombo and his crew have died & never been heard from again, or might the voyage have resulted in an accidental discovery of the New World several decades early?
(OOC: "The New World" is just an archaic expression, as it is in OTL, as is "the Orient". You can call America whatever you like)