We give an introduction to matroid theory with a view towards its recent interactions with algebraic geometry. In the first half, we study matroids as combinatorial abstractions of hyperplane arrangements, which will lead us to Chow rings of matroids, modeled after the geometry of wonderful compactifications of hyperplane arrangement complements. In the second half, we give a broad survey of some recent developments involving other different but related algebro-geometric models of matroids.