What did Siddhartha really meant by ending suffering
"Ending suffering" is a red haring caused by older translations of the Pali word Dukkha. 

It is a word which has not survived in Western Indo-European languages, but its antonym "Sukkha" is the root for our word "Sugar" in English, "Sucre" in French and "Zucker" in German, all meaning "sweet".

Later translators preferred to either leave the term untranslated or to clarify that translation with terms such as anxiety, distress, frustration, unease, unsatisfactoriness, etc. Many contemporary teachers, scholars, and translators have used the term "unsatisfactoriness" to emphasize the subtlest aspects of dukkha. 

Buddhism focuses on developing insight into the nature of dukkha, the conditions that cause it, and how it connects &amp; affects us all. This insight, bodhi is (also dubiously) translated as enlightenment. So what Siddharta actually meant would be closer to "ending the arising &amp; conditions of unsatisfactoriness in one's mind", which also creates positive effects in reality (by actions based on understanding) and therefore to others.