Borgomanero took an active part in the Italian Risorgimento: the brothers Ercole and Antonio Maioni paid with exile raising the Italian flag in Turin in 1821; Maddalena Zoppis lost an eye during the Five Days of Milan in 1848; Costantino Pagani was one of the volunteers participating in the Expedition of the Thousand led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Moreover, the city was occupied by the Austrian army in the aftermath of the Battle of Novara (1849).