Question

So what exactly was the navigation acts? How did it affect america? We could only trade with the mother country?

Answer 1

The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England (after 1707 Great Britain) and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the Netherlands, France and other European countries. The original ordinance of 1651 was renewed at the Restoration by Acts of 1660 and 1663, and subsequently subject to minor amendment. These Acts also formed the basis for British overseas trade for nearly 200 years.
On the whole, the Acts of Trade and Navigation were obeyed, except for the Molasses Act of 1733, which led to extensive smuggling because no effective means of enforcement was provided until the 1750s. Irritation with stricter enforcement under the Sugar Act of 1764 became one source of resentment by merchants in the American colonies against Great Britain, helping cause the American Revolution.

Answer 2

It pretty much banned trade with anyone but england. So colonists started smuggling