General reforms occurring within the Ottoman Empire as it attempted to modernize, specifically census-taking and the forced conscription of citizens, also led to increased tensions and feelings of insecurity for the Muslim residents of Aleppo.[12] Following the first-ever census of Aleppo's adult males, rumors spread that the Ottoman Empire intended to begin to conscript adult males in the area. Backlash against looming threat of conscription, then, meant that the taking of the census became the catalyst for the 1850 riots in Aleppo.[13]