Although a small town and then very poor, Esino participated in the Risorgimento movement (Italian reunification). At the news of the revolt in Milan in 1848, a group came from Lecco and joined volunteers in the Esino Lario to come to the aid of the Milanese in their Five Days Rebellion. The first 50 years of the Kingdom of Italy were of economical crisis: wood was no longer required for the coal needed for melting furnaces, and could only be sold afar.