Foundation and early years (1908–1960)

The club was founded on 9 March 1908 as Football Club Internazionale, when a group of players left the Milan Cricket and Football Club (now AC Milan) to form a new club because they wanted to accept more foreign players. The name of the club derives from the wish of its founding members to accept foreign players as well as Italians. The club won its first championship in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first championship winning team was Virgilio Fossati, who was later killed in battle while serving in the Italian army during World War I.

In 1922, Inter was at risk of relegation to the Second Division of Northern League, but they remained in the top league after winning two play-offs.

Six years later, during the Fascist era, the club merged with the Unione Sportiva Milanese and, for political reasons, was renamed Società Sportiva Ambrosiana. During the 1928–29 season, the team wore white jerseys with a red cross emblazoned on it; the jersey's design was inspired by the flag and coat of arms of the city of Milan. In 1929, the new club chairman Oreste Simonotti changed the club's name to Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana and restored the previous black-and-blue jerseys; however, supporters continued to call the team Inter, and in 1931, new chairman Pozzani succumbed to shareholder pressure and changed the name to Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana-Inter.

Inter won its third championship titles in 1930 with the Hungarian coach Arpad Weisz in the first ever edition of Serie A, and the fourth in 1938 with former player Armando Castellazzi as a 33 years old coach, that set the record for the youngest coach ever to win the national title that lasts to this day. Inter also got their first Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) in 1939 with the decisive goal in the final scored by Olympic gold medal and top scorer in 1936 Olympics Annibale Frossi. Inter's main star and the captain of the team in this period was Giuseppe Meazza, one of the greatest Italian players of all time with two World Cups won with the National team and the greatest scorer in Inter history with 284 goals, and after whom the San Siro stadium is officially named after his death in 1980. 38 goals scored by Meazza in 39 matches in 1929-1930 is a seasonal record in Inter history still unbeaten today. Inter ended also three consecutive times in 2nd place between 1933 and 1935; in those years many South Americans of Italian origin arrived in Milan to circumvent the regime's rules that prohibit the hiring of foreign players: Uruguayan players like World Cup Winner in 1930 Hector Scarone and Ernesto Mascheroni and also Ricardo Faccio and Francesco Frione, and Argentinian like Attilio Demaría that stayed 10 seasons with the club. A fifth championship followed in 1940, that ended a decade dominated by three teams: Inter, Bologna and the historic rival Juventus, while AC Milan didn't win a title for 44 years from 1907 to 1951 and didn't win a single derby for a record 17 matches from 1928 to 1938.

In the 1930s Inter also played for seven times in one of the first major European football cups, the Central European Cup, with Meazza that was a record three times topscorer of the competition; coached by Árpád Weisz Inter reached the final in 1933, when after had won the first leg in Milan 2–1, lost 3–1 in 9 men against Austria Vienna. 4 out of 11 players of that team: Meazza, Luigi Allemandi, Attilio Demaría and Armando Castellazzi would go on to win the 1934 World Cup with Italian national team, while other five Inter players will contribute to the win of 1938 World Cup with Italy: Meazza, Ugo Locatelli, Giovanni Ferrari, Pietro Ferraris and Renato Olmi.

After the end of World War II, the club's name changed back to its original one, Internazionale, and it come close to win Serie A title in two occasions, one in the last season of Grande Torino in 1949, against whom Inter were the last team to face them on 30 April 1949 five days before the Superga air disaster, and in 1951 for just one point, with the contribution of great players acquired by president Carlo Masseroni in these years, like Gino Armano, Amedeo Amadei, the first Dutch player in club history Faas Wilkes and the Hungarian István Nyers from Stade Français; Inter will win its sixth championship in 1953 and its seventh in 1954, for the first time in two consecutive years, coached by Alfredo Foni and led by two of the most prolific strikers in club history: István Nyers and Benito Lorenzi with the Swedish Lennart Skoglund that completed the offensive trio. One of the crucial matches of the 1954 Scudetto was the direct clash for the title, that saw Inter victory over Juventus for 6-0, the club's biggest victory in the Derby d'Italia.

In May 1955, Angelo Moratti became the new owner of Inter, and in the first years of his presidency got disappointing results despite strong players like forwards, Eddie Firmani and the Argentinian Angelillo who scored an all-time record in a season in Serie A with 18 teams: 33 goals in 33 matches in 1958-1959 season, tied also Meazza seasonal record of 38 goals in 39 matches.

Moratti in the following years put foundations to one of the greatest teams in football history starting from the debut of a 16 years old Mario Corso and the acquisition of Aristide Guarneri in 1958, and under Argentinian coach Helenio Herrera in 1960 with the signing of Giacinto Facchetti and Armando Picchi.