Week 9- Muddiest Point

Okay, I've read a substantial amount of what all the links to tutorials and introductions had to tell me about XML, and I may sound like an idiot when I ask this, but why is there an XML? Can I just make a webpage with XML and publish it and everyone in the world can read it? Only some of them? Are we moving towards XML? Will it replace HTML? What is it for? It's only slightly clearer than HTML, and any improvements are so subtle that they are lost on me...