Beginner Steps to Configure a Java Project to Build with Apache Maven - eclipse

Question

I've been given the task of migrating an existing project -- formerly built with Ant -- to use Apache Maven. I'm brand new to the entire concept, though I've spent the last several hours doing as much research as I can on the subject. Sadly, I'm having some proxy issues when it comes to installing things like m2e and Eclipse IAM, so everything must be done from the command prompt. As of right now, I do have maven installed properly; the trick now is to use it in my project rather than Ant. I've looked online and found a few tutorials, but they are all too vague for me considering my lack of experience with all of this. If anyone can break the steps down for me one-by-one in a detailed manner, that would be more than amazing. On a side note, I've been told to add the following to the local Maven Settings:
<settings>
<servers>
<server>
<id>local_tomcat</id>
<username>admin</username>
<password>tomcat</password>
</server>
<server>
<id>artifactory</id>
<username>user</username>
<password>password</password>
</server>
</servers>
<mirrors>
<mirror>
<id>artifactory</id>
<name>Artifactory</name>
<url>https://jenkins.web.jw.local/artifactory/repo1</url>
<mirrorOf>central</mirrorOf>
</mirror>
</mirrors>
<proxies>
<proxy>
<active>true</active>
<protocol>http</protocol>
<host>proxy.jw.local</host>
<port>80</port>
<username>user</username>
<password>password</password>
<nonProxyHosts>*.jw.local</nonProxyHosts>
</proxy>
</proxies>
</settings>
With the obvious username and password information filled in. I think I've managed that thus far by simply adding the necessary blocks into the settings.xml file under my ApacheMaven\conf directory. Other than that single step, I'm pretty much lost. Again, any help, especially that of a detailed tutorial in terms of command line instructions to build this project would be wonderful. Oh, and on another side-note, I am using Eclipse... Not sure if that would matter much.
EDIT: Considering Petr Kozelka's answer, I've attempted to make a pom.xml file for my project. Here's what I have so far...
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.company</groupId>
<artifactId>appName</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>Application Name</name>
<description>Yadda Yadda</description>
<build>
<plugins>
</plugins>
</build>
<dependencies>
</dependencies>
<repositories>
</repositories>
</project>
Is this heading in the right direction? Also, do I need to construct the archetype.xml file myself, or will Maven do that through the command line somehow? If I need to do it myself, this is what I've come up with thus far:
<archetype xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-archetype-plugin/archetype/1.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-archetype-plugin/archetype/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/archetype-1.0.0.xsd">
<id>lighthouse</id>
<sources>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/AddTimeController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/BugController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/DeleteTimeController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/EnterTimeController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/ModifyTimeController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/PersonController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/ProjectController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/controller/TimeController.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/Area.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/Bug.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/DBModel.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/DefaultModel.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/JWModel.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/JWTime.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/Person.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/model/Project.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/util/Lighthouse.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/util/LighthouseApplicationListener.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/util/LighthouseServlet.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/util/LighthouseSystemProperties.java</source>
<source>src/com/jeldwen/lighthouse/LighthouseApp.java</source>
</sources>
<testSources>
<!-- None -->
</testSources>
<allowPartial>true</allowPartial>
</archetype>

Answer 1

First of all: if you wish to customize settings.xml, do not touch the one in maven distro - instead, create a new file in $HOME/.m2/settings.xml where maven finds and uses it.
As the very first step, I recommend you to not use settings.xml at all.
Create a supersimple maven project, and try to compile it:
mvn clean install
Second step
Use very simple settings.xml:
you probably do not need proxy
servers part is needed only for publishing artifacts to a maven repository; that's not important at the beginning
here it is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings>
<mirrors>
<mirror>
<id>repos</id>
<mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf>
<name>internal mirror</name>
<url>https://jenkins.web.jw.local/artifactory/repo1</url>
</mirror>
</mirrors>
<!-- TODO: the proxy part here -->
</settings>
This assumes that you use inhouse maven repository, for instance Nexus or Artifactory.
Using maven repo makes only sense if your projects are not happy with deps available in the Maven Central Repository - otherwise, you can safely go without it. (let's neglect the performance effect of repoman for now)
Now, add some java sources, dependencies etc. - and watch how new depenencies get automatically downloaded to your local repository...
Third step
Learn how to add further repositories to your repository manager (group "public" on Nexus)...
The rest is probably subject of further research.