and ended territory loss. Heavy taxation, institutionalisation of land ownership, reforms, that weakened the privileged status of the Cambodian elite, as well as resentment against foreign domination, were the causes of intermittent rebellions that marked the colonial period. Revolts erupted in 1866, in 1870 and 1883/84 that attracted considerable support in the countryside, easily quelled by the French, who created discord among the Khmer forces. Sisowath, Norodom's half brother led his troops into combat alongside the French who nourished his ambitions for the royal crown. Quelling the rebellion took one and one-half years, and it tied down some 4,000 French and Vietnamese troops that had been brought in from Cochinchina. Ethnic Khmer colonial forces The colonial military forces in Cambodia, tasked to quell potential insurrections, consisted of a light infantry battalion (Bataillon tirailleurs cambodgiens) and a national constabulary (Garde nationale, also called Garde indigène). The light infantry battalion, a Khmer unit with French officers, was part of a larger force, the third brigade, which had responsibility for Cambodia and for Cochinchina. In addition to the Cambodian battalion, the brigade was composed of French colonial and Vietnamese light infantry regiments and support elements. The brigade, headquartered in Saigon, was ultimately responsible to a supreme military command for Indochina located in Hanoi. Under the French pre-World War II colonial regime, the constabulary consisted of a force of about 2,500 men and a mixed Franco–Khmer headquarters element of about forty to fifty officers, technicians, and support personnel. The force was divided into about fifteen companies deployed in the provinces. Control of the constabulary was vested in the colonial civil administration, but in times of crisis, command could pass quickly to military authorities in Saigon or in Hanoi. Service in the constabulary theoretically was voluntary, and personnel received a cash salary. Enlistments, however, were rarely sufficient to keep pace with personnel requirements, and villages occasionally were tasked to provide recruits. Japanese occupation (1941–1945) During World War II Japan which effectively controlled South-east Asia by 1942 tolerated the Vichy administration in Hanoi as a vassal of Nazi Germany that included permission of unhindered movement of Japanese troops through Indochina. The Japanese, while leaving the Vichy colonial government nominally in charge throughout Indochina, established an 8,000 troops strong garrison in Cambodia by August 1941. Thailand sought to take advantage of its alliance with Tokyo and colonial French weakness by launching an invasion of Cambodia's western provinces.