Rebelling enables you to be freed from a conquerer, and to stop paying taxes to them if you are successful. You initiate the rebellion, and then 24 ticks later (if you haven't been attacked and defeated by your conquerer or a member of his alliance) you are free!
After a rebellion, when you are free, you can conquer people again (And also, you can be conquered by other people again, so make sure you're ready) - it's sometimes best to stay conquered for a while, while you build up defences and resource production.
Placing a bounty means that you place "resources on someone's head" - If I place a bounty on colony X, when someone sucessfully conquers colony X, then the conquerer recieves the bounty. This is good for trying to convince stronger players to attack your conquerer. You can see the outstanding bounties by clicking on the community screen, and you can place a bounty on a colony by clicking on it and then clicking the skull.
Any more questions?
St.Even