Abstract: I will give an introduction to the theory of convex projective structures on closed manifolds, and explain some of the ways they can be used to understand these manifolds at a group-theoretic level. Then we will go over a recent result of Zimmer, which states that the fundamental group of a closed convex projective manifold is either a nontrivial product, a lattice in a higher rank symmetric space, or "rank one" (i.e. has strong hyperbolic-like properties).